A new project: The City/ In a Forest

In early June, I was accepted into a residency program at The Hambidge Center in northern Georgia. The basis of the project I’ll be working on at Hambidge centers around the characterization of Atlanta as “a city in a forest.” As the city continues to grow and change, this characterization of an environment in balance seems increasingly in question. The city is moving in conflicting directions that harm the environment while also promoting public transportation, housing density, and conservation.

The body of work I’m beginning investigates these ideas by dividing the phrase into “The City/ In a Forest” to view either ends of the balance as they exist today and understand how each is shaped by the other. Dividing the phrase divides the balance between them to consider a future of one without the other. What is Atlanta’s midtown without the nature that surrounds it? How are Atlanta’s greenspaces unique to the city? These are the questions I’d like to explore.

I intend for wallpaper to be the medium for my final work because wallpaper has long been a canvas for both escape and centering. Ancient wall frescos, paintings, early industrial, and modern wallpapers have all commonly depicted both pastoral and urban scenes that owners have used to decorate their homes to add a sense of the places where they feel belonging.

Until I attend in late October, I’ll be studying architecture and greenery in the city by drawing from observation. I plan to share more during the working process for this project because there’s so much work and investigation that I’m sure will happen along the way that the final designs alone can’t capture. If you have feedback through that process or want to open up your backyard to let me draw there, please reach out.

On site with Mr. Wallpaper

Last Friday, I joined “Mr. Wallpaper” on location in Atlanta to learn more about wallpaper from his perspective as a master hanger. Tory was surprised when I reached out, wondering why I would want to see him work, but for me this was a unique and exciting opportunity.

Tory trimming a silk wallcovering on the ceiling

When I led a workshop on wallpaper design with Practice Makes Practice last year, I included a slide to talk about the shift in perspective that I’ve had over the years. Originally, I drew designs with my nose close to the paper - far from the printing and installation, but it is the real spaces and the lives of people living in them that inform every aspect of a design: scale, color, theme, etc.

That the other perspective and process that I’ve had to learn over the years: starting from the end, where we envision the wallpaper being installed and working backwards to bring the details of the design in to focus.

The work of installers is at the meeting of these perspectives, where my dreams meet the dreams of the clients. When their work goes well, it’s unseen, but that doesn’t happen by magic. For any project to go as well as possible, the wallpaper needs to be the best quality and the installation instructions need to be clear for hangers to use. For me to know the challenges they face helps me to be a better designer so that I can work with them to help transform rooms.

I got to see Tory’s talent before I even arrived on site when he told me he had to stop to buy a stain for the seams. The lustrous silk wallcovering he was installing had shrunk by a hair, so he had to find a matching acrylic to lightly cover the wall peaking through.

Tory started by working with his family during the ‘80s, and that experience was evident seeing him paint seams and answer the phone and my many question while moving around the room for hours on stilts. It was a great opportunity to connect with a real master. You can find Tory at Mr.WallpaperAtlanta.com.

By March, I’ll have more new designs added here to the site, and I’m working on several other exciting projects already this year. Stay tuned for more.

Behind the Scenes: Designing the First Pillow Collection

About a year ago, I was relying on this classic weaving book to develop structures for tufted carpet design and then to develop prints that looked like weaves. I’d sporadically translated some of the diagrams into digital patterns in the past, when I decided to take the time to digitize whole sections of the book to create a library of patterns that I could mix and match whenever I needed.

Fig 918 digitized from "A Handbook of Weaves"

In part, I wanted to spend time understanding how each of these tiny patterns works in detail because they’re remarkably creative and varied but economical with the little space that they have. I spent several days translating them and developing and appreciation for the balance in them, and the ways that one little dot could change the movement in a pattern once the tile is repeated.

Once translated in to weaves, the smallest of these patterns become integrated with the materiality of the cloth to read as textures that carry light differently, but when viewed as large graphics they hold their own as remarkably balanced patterns that feel both traditional but bold and radical. They are the original Op-Art.

As I was thinking about this new project using Jacquard weaving, I knew I wanted to use the classic patterns somehow. I loved the thought of giving a nod to the hand-loom weaving on a machine that can do anything.

To express that “anything,” I wanted to use another set of patterns that accomplished the same thing as the classic weaves but with a completely different style. Unconstrained by the technology of modern looms, I decided that I would pair these weaving patterns with something that felt alien, organic, and weird. Both types of patterns could be completely balanced at a large scale but move in completely different ways - remaining independent but in conversation with one another. I referred to images that I’d been collecting that felt related to this and set to work creating a technique to create my own.

Creating balanced organic patterns by hand on the computer. Areas were painted in and erased away repeatedly to make all of the spacing the same.

The pattern is made binary, like the weaving diagrams.

For the fabric structure, I chose to use a double-weave with two warp and weft ends that switch in their own pairings to create four different colors in the cloth - changing the way the fabric reads at different angles and in different lights. I’m excited to keep exploring this type of woven construction in the future as I create new designs.

The final work in detail.

I’m thrilled to hear the reception of this work so far and I’m excited to continue this new series. If you have any thoughts or other inquiries, please reach out.

Check out the final products over at my store.

Thoughts On: Innovation

Today, digital images are used to share and develop ideas at an enormous speed and scale. Social media and link management sites like Pinterest all feature ways of saving images and building “boards” to recontextualize ideas through combination with others. The the scale of this information environment dwarfs any one person’s capacity to view and process even of fraction of what’s generated daily within even a single website, and there’s a constantly growing overabundance of imagery and sources to pull from. It pushes designers looking online for inspiration into a position where the challenge is never really to be inspired but to be selective so that the inspiration isn’t diluted by variety. It’s a situation that we all know firsthand.

Less than a century ago, the situation was different. In the collection of the RISD museum there is an artifact known as the Scottish Swatch Book. It’s an unassuming 19th century ledger book that was used to record the hours worked by employees and was then repurposed to hold printed fabric swatches, presumably cut as they were struck from the presses. For the designers at the mill, this might have been the closest thing they had to Instagram or Pinterest.

As quaint as that sounds, it’s important to remember that Scotland was at the cutting edge of design and manufacturing at this time. Great Britain was politically and commercially involved in cultures across the globe and these mill designers and their work were now part of a global exchange. That exchange is evident in the recurrence of paisley patterns within the book.

In 2015, I had the opportunity to look through this swatch book in person and was surprised by both the variety and repetition between the patterns. As one flips through the pages there are innumerable abstract dots, lines, dashes, squiggles, stripes, motifs, and marks made by a seemingly rotating cast of hands. Design elements used separately reappear later in combination to new effect. Through these pages, one can begin to see a sort of exchange and evolution that went on between the designers as they pushed themselves daily to create innovate.

Thoughts on: Technology and Innovation

Part 1: Technology

Henri de Toulouse-Latrec L’estampe Originale 1893

Why is printmaking still in use? I think we take that fact for granted. As technology, each major stage of printmaking was made obsolete by the next, and today all printmaking is obsolete to high-speed digital presses and screens that display dynamic graphics and live video.

In M.C. Escher’s book “Escher on Escher,” he describes why he typically used printmaking to create his designs and didn’t simply draw them. He emphasized the act of translation in the medium that allowed him to think and to represent his ideas as drawing alone simply couldn’t. The process was integral to the final design.

That benchmark is true of any tool that an artist uses, whether it is a homemade brush or carving tool, a lathe, or CAD software. Thinking of these artist tools as technology, the most simple, like painting and sculpture, have stayed with us the longest because they remain essential. Even CAD programs build on the language and imagery of the painter’s or sculptor’s studio.

The most simple tools retain the greatest utility. Even a broken wooden rake handle can prop open a door or be used to reach something or be repaired, but if an ergonomically sculpted aluminum handle is broken or bent, it’s more likely to be discarded completely. The same is true for artist tools. Those built on the most sophisticated technology become obsolete more quickly and require the most learning to repair or modify.

In the current landscape of creative technologies, I’d estimate that the greatest number of obsolete tools belong to the near past. They were either replaced by industrial processes outright or made obsolete by more advanced updates; early 20th century looms, 20 year old laser printers, and countless craft and industrial processes like Japanese katagami stencil printing or unique wax print processes.

Google Arts and Culture: What are Ise katagami stencils?

But what allows obsolete tools or processes that are complex to stay around? I think the preservation and adaptation that some technologies have experienced is largely due to culture and values. Printmaking and textile arts like quilting, knitting, and weaving serve as good examples of this. All are practiced in various early forms, which date back thousands of years, and in many other forms by artists and crafts people using computerized sewing machines, hand knitting machines, and miniature Jacquard looms.

These processes have existed long enough to become a part of many cultures and people find joy in using them that can never be replaced by the efficiency or cost of images and cloths produced by highly efficient facilities. What’s interesting to me now is seeing how some unique industrial processes, and newly obsolete technologies have found new audiences.

In the video below, Hermès designers work with a Japanese family still practicing a unique wax printing process that was innovated in Europe but otherwise lost due to the rise of less costly processes. Hermès designers understand the cultural value that this work and expertise represents.

Other obsolete technologies have also experienced a resurgence of interest with younger artist and designers. Notably, these technologies are partially or entirely manual. It’s likely that the tactility and creativity of working with unpredictable manual processes and tools is part of the appeal for a generation that often feels overwhelmed by the presence of screens in their lives.

One of those mediums is machine hand tufting, which has almost single-handedly been proliferated by Tim Eads at TuftingGun.com. There’s now a growing community of people using this tool to make their art or fashion. Notably, Tim’s site includes a forum for hand-tufters to share stories and advice. The community that’s built around processes is integral to their survival.

Two other examples are Risograph printing and pen plotters. Both imaging technologies date back to the 1970’s and have both been replaced by modern digital printers. The pen plotter was developed to replace the draftsperson by converting a vector path designed with CAD software into an ink line plotted on paper. The Risograph printer is a sort of hybrid between an office copier and a printing press, printing limited colors individually.

The pen plotter has primarily been embraced by communities of designers working with code to create generative art and then to translate those images into a tactile form. Riso has found it’s audience with younger artists and designers who have a deep understanding of making art in a digital space but are finding new engagement with their work through that very same act of translation that captivated Escher 100 years earlier.

These hybrid digital processes haven’t been around very long, but the experience and utility they provide speak to a shared sense of values that embraces imperfection, tactility, and the creative struggle of translation unique to each medium. That alone is important but there’s a larger point that this leads towards which I’ll address in part two: Innovation.

Findings: Jugend Magazine

Recently, I found the Youtube channel of Pete Beard, an illustration enthusiast in the UK. I’ve hardly scratched the surface of the many video that he’s begun to put together chronicling the history of unknown and under-appreciated illustrators, but one of the first fun discoveries from him was Jugend Magazine.

Judend was a weekly magazine published in Germany from the late 19th century until the end of the Second World War. It’s pages are a gold mine illustration styles, but if the name of the magazine sounds familiar to you as it did to me, it’s because it inspired the term Jugendstil.

Copies of Jugend are few and far between, but the pages have been scanned and made available online by the Heidelberg University Library. Check it out for yourself, and view a sampling of a few pages below.

Happy Valentine's

I couldn’t resist making a fun playlist for Valentine’s. A friend of mine recently shared a Russ Morgan album on her Instagram and it sent me down a road of listening to a lot of old jazz music. There are a lot of heart-warming songs from the early 20th century. They’re upbeat and silly and romantic, and make me miss going to jazz clubs, but also do the trick to continue to keep my spirits up through the continuation of our pandemic.

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Thoughts On: Swiss Graphic Design

Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of An International Style, 1920-1965 by Richard Hollis

In 2007 I was a high-school senior in Columbia, SC. I’d always been deeply interested in art but uncertain about what I wanted to do after high-school. In my final year of school, I spent some time on my own going to my local local public library and browsing books. It was there that I discovered Swiss Graphic Design. The book is a thorough history of the competing and coalescing theories about graphic arts and advertising that emerged in Switzerland in the early 20th century, and it became a touchstone for me to learn about the cultural legacies, emergent theories, and innovations that were consequential in shaping modern thinking and graphic arts. I read the book like a sort of bible, as one does before they’ve gained a better, more personal, knowledge of the subject and compiled the information in it into meticulous lists of people, ideas, and other publications to get to know.

The book inspired me to enroll in a graphic design program at The University of South Carolina with the expectation that I would be doing work like these designers, but I would discover shortly after that the professional world that I’d been introduced to in the book had been drastically changed by digital programs. I realized that I wanted to be working directly with the graphic tools that these designers had– not to advertise pharmaceuticals, oil, plastics, or transportation, but still to engage with the same formal challenges.

All of these tools now belonged in the printmaking studio, so I switched from graphic design and followed my instincts to the place that I thought could face me with the challenges that I needed. Years later, I’m grateful that I made that move that eventually lead me to surface design, but I still look back on this book and the many ideas and people that it introduced me too. It’s well worth the look. I don’t see it anymore as a sacred text but the legacy of an on-going debate about communication. Check out a copy of my original notes below and notice the final page filled with call numbers for the chain of books that I searched for at the time.

click here to download these pages as a pdf

Faye Toogood

I first encountered Faye Toogood’s work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2017 at a show called Design Currents. I’d never heard of her at the time, but her work stuck out to me and I found myself moving back and forth around the room to look at objects again. Years later, Toogood’s work and vision has continued to grow and gain more exposure. I enjoyed watching this interview that she did with NGV Melbourne. I think she makes interesting points about finding informed and original design solutions in a way that is free from the rigorous reverence for modernist design and open to a broader range of influences, processes, and juxtapositions. This is worth watching.

Playlist: Birds of a Feather

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Findings: Exploiting Mario Kart's Glitches to Compete for World Records

Last Christmas, I looked in to buying a copy of Mario Kart to play on a system that my family had dug out of storage, but when I looked online, copies of Mario Kart were still selling for nearly as much as new games. I couldn’t understand why because I didn’t think many people would still be playing the game. A few weeks later, Google pushed a story to me about a world recored being broken on Rainbow Road that lead me to this video. The entire time I was watching it, I kept thinking how absurd and dumb all of this is, but then couldn’t stop watching. It’s honestly pretty fascinating and I’m amazed by people’s competitiveness, even against themselves, and their commitment to discovering better ways of doing things. This is honestly so bizarre, but interesting.

Findings: Fashion Textiles

This was a fun find from the 80s. I always enjoy seeing process videos behind how couture clothing is made.

Findings: Montez Press Radio

Montez Press Radio

This is something that I recently discovered. It’s great to see artists finding ways to come together during the pandemic and I think this is a great way for it to happen, feeling a little more organic and spontaneous and actually effective than the podcast formats which have become much more popular.

From their site: “An offshoot of Montez Press, Montez Press Radio was founded in 2018 with the goal of fostering greater experimentation and conversation between artists, writers, and thinkers through the medium of radio. This platform is an experiment in broadcasting and community building which allows different corners of the art world to interact with each other in person and on air—a place where media finally meets flesh. Offering space and time to both the established and emerging or underrepresented, we are drawn to art that exists in the unexpected, the authenticity of sharing without a script, the sounds of ideas in the making, conversation that forgets there’s an audience. We strive to question current knowledge economies while doing our best to interrupt commercial means of communication. All of our in-studio broadcasts are free and open to the public. Stop by when we’re live at 46 Canal Street #2 in NYC or look at the schedule to see if we’re off-site and broadcasting near you. Queries and programming proposals can be sent to radio@montezpress.com or message us on Instagram.”

Four more playlists

I listen to music throughout the day while I’m working. Over time, I’ve developed a habit of putting songs together into playlists. I think that partly comes from working as a DJ while I was in college. These are the other playlists that I made this summer. Enjoy :)

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Inspirations

“Shadows” is a series of playlists that I started making this summer. This is the first three in that series. Enjoy :)

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We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. By using our website and our services, you agree to our use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy.

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Findings: Art School Readings

I’ve been using Are.na since about 2015, but have become more reliant on it recently. If you haven’t seen the site before, check it out. Of any other site out there, it’s most similar to Pinterest, but it’s more simple and useful for aggregating information on a subject. Anyway, amongst the myriad things to be found on the site, this link to “art school” readings caught my attention. There are a lot of great free PDFs in here. Check it out and share if you like.

Playlist

These two are just for fun. This is a pair of playlists that I made earlier in the pandemic.

Philip Muller · Playlist · 16 songs · 1 likes

Philip Muller · Playlist · 17 songs · 1 likes

On the Bookshelf: No Magic In Riso

I’ve never designed a Risograph print, but I picked this book up because I’m a nerd for all printmaking, I wanted to learn more about the process, and the book looked beautiful. A lot of learning through the printmaking community happens through workshops and small publications. I’ve made guides for screen printing and taught workshops myself, so I appreciate anyone who takes the time to test processes and compile information for others to use.

Although I haven’t technically designed anything for the process, it works much like gravure printing, or perhaps a hybrid between gravure and screen. The close similarity that it shares with gravure is that the designer can work in tonal variations or anti-aliased pixels. The duplication process converts smooth tone to halftone at 60 LPI and each color is printed as a separate spot color.

The limitations to the process are generally: print size constraint, registration, and limitation to factory spot colors. However, limitations can guide the creative process and lead to innovations and learning. Probably the single greatest appeal of the process, to me, other than the fun of it, is that it is much more environmentally friendly than screen printing or even other digital processes because the inks are made from soy. It’s also nice that if working in a smaller format, the process can render smaller details than screen printing without the same difficulties.

I did have one critique of the separation process that the authors describe. Although their process is easy for an inexperienced designer to understand, it is misleading. The authors follow a separation process that seems to be common in Asia; every gravure printer that I’ve worked with has used it. That process is to simply convert a CMYK image into multi-channel mode and manipulate the spot colors and tonal balance of each channel.

This can be useful in some instances but it’s more of a conversion than a separation. I think it can be a gateway to lead a curious but inexperienced designer to learn more about separations, but it doesn’t allow for clean color separations, which one might especially want for illustrations. The authors’ process looks good in the book because they almost exclusively show halftone images that have been separated into the fun Riso colors.

With that criticism in mind, I highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn more about Risograph or spot color printing.

You may also want to check out my separation guide here.

No Magic in Riso is published by O.OO Design & RIsograph Room, based in Taipei, Taiwan.